Daughter Trilogy Bundle (124 page)

The naga
’s venom is still pumping through my veins, and my weakened state is still a grave problem.

“
And Asteria?” I release in an attempt to stir any other entity.

She laughs as if she
’s mocking the very name of the other titan.

“
Asteria,” she scoffs.  “She was useless.  Pointless if you ask me.  No one feared her as much as they feared the idea of her.  Again, too much hype.”

Her insolence pisses off the powerful one she just dismissed, but it
’s still not enough to break them free from the block I’ve forced them under.

Damn it.

The ground below me rattles lightly, and I feel the volcano’s instability from the potent powers overwhelming it.  A vine falls free from the caged prison’s border, and I have to roll under it to escape the thorny promise of death.

Pyrrha chuckles as if it delights her to see me advertising my fear.  The lizard bearing Camara
’s eyes starts to lunge from the wall in a panicked reflexive motion, but she sees I’m alright and creeps back into her hiding place. 

“
You’re right to be scared, Aphrodite,” she grimly murmurs with sadistic joy.

“
I’m not scared,” I grumble.  “I just don’t feel like tasting Athena’s poison for a third time.”

“
Oh yes,” she chimes in sardonically.  “You have managed to stay alive twice despite the poison intended for your kind.  Safina didn’t study you like I did though.  She didn’t learn all and see all as I have.  She left too much room for surprise, and you do love surprising people.  I, however, have left no room for error.”

I smirk a little at her smug declaration that will soon be proven to have been in vain.  So many things I wish I could gloat about right now.  The first would be how Aphrodite summoned my child early to save her life.

“You’d be surprised at the mysteries my life still holds,” I murmur with intended snarkiness.

“
Unlikely,” she asserts with an unimpressed nature.  “I’ve anticipated your every move, your every breath and everything in between.  There’s nothing I haven’t accounted for,” she boasts.  “Now, if you don’t mind, I’ll take my child.  I’m tired of waiting, and the naga’s venom has a secret side effect on a woman bearing child when provoked by someone such as myself,” she giddily adds.

Oh no.  It
’s too soon for her to find out.

Camara just found me, and the others could be anyone in the world right now.  It could take them hours or even days to get here - wherever
here
is.

I start scrambling to find a way to distract her further, but her eyes darken to a blackened state.  There
’s no white left in her eyes, and it’s enough to make my sweltering skin crawl.

Her lips are moving, and I feel whispers coming from the ground.  No words, just breaths escape as a chill slides over my skin.

I feel my breath catching as something unseen travels into my mouth and slides down to my stomach.  Then I screech when I’m frozen by the power searching recklessly within me.

The walls of my stomach contort reflexively from each blow, and then I hear Pyrrha screaming in disbelief.

“Where’s my baby!  Where is she?  This isn’t right!  I timed it.  I put her inside of you.  I know exactly when she was conceived.  Give me my damn child!” she blares, and I smirk a little as her power slithers from my empty womb and back to her. 

Her face ages a couple more years, and her veins pump vigorously for a minute to account for the power she just wasted.

“Surprise,” I mock, and then a breathless and sardonic laugh squeaks out.

“
You filthy whore.  Where’s my baby?” her feral voice demands.

I start laughing which only taunts and antagonizes the bitch in her.  I can see her fury blazing through her eyes, and I can taste her livid ferocity.

“She’s safe.  You’ll never find her.  I knew you wanted her, and so did my goddess,” I sigh out through my vicious laughter.

“
You sniveling bitch.  I’ll-”

She stops short when her threats only increase the roaring laughter exuding from me.  She tilts her head and narrows her eyes to gauge my peculiar hysteria.

I grab my side as if it aches from the crude outburst, and I see her jaw clenching.

“
You’ll tell me where she is,” she growls.

My laughter rolls free even more at her incredulous remark.  The gall is profound in itself, and her face almost beams with anger.

“I wouldn’t tell you even if you threw me to the vicious hounds,” I laugh out.  “I’ll die to protect her without waver.”

“
Oh, you’ll tell me,” her reaper tone announces, and then she smirks a little too smugly for my comfort which slowly ceases my laughter.  “Tell me, have you ever heard of the Jaculus?”

“
No,” I warily respond.

She grins maliciously, and I feel small prickles against my scalp as the howling winds escaping from the cracked volcanic floor beneath my feet send a new wave of chills.

“It’s funny you know so little about yourself, Aphrodite.  Your
goddess
, as you so boast her to be, banished them - the Jaculus - from the surface when their king refused to join her in bed, for he truly loved a woodland nymph.

“
She tried to force him, but he proved to be immune to her
charm,
so to speak.  She found an Arae - a curser - to draw out the immortal beauty of this once glorious tribe full of gorgeous men, and she turned them into monsters no woman would cast a glance upon.

“
She sent them to the bellies of the underworld to live in the shadows for all time, shielded from the scrutinizing and horrified eyes of the surface.  The dragon’s breath was bestowed upon them by Tartarus once they were cast out of the surface world.

“
It’s a twisted web in this world.  The Jaculus have been waiting a long time to exact their revenge, and I’m sure you’ll see why soon enough,” she gloats, and then she steps to the side as the torrential, ghastly moans grow closer.

The chilling moans fade into laughter as a gasp-worthy man walks up.  His eyes are almost deformed as one is sealed shut, and the other is drooping lazily.

His body is marred by an overwhelming amount of branded tattoos, and his bald head displays the branded mark of the grim reaper’s scythe very proudly.

He stalks toward me with his menacing grin, and the vines around me wilt under his steaming breath.

His hideous face doesn’t match his strong body, but his heinous intent compensates.  The vines shrivel to the ground, and I take a step backwards as his hand reaches out to touch my face.

I almost gasp for air as the poison of his touch drains me of the life in my body.  My eyes caution Camara
’s lizard to stay out of sight when she peers out too far from her hiding place.

She steps back, and I let out a shriek of pain.  I hear death whispering its secrets to me when it beckons me to succumb to its too close grip.  A ringing forms in my ears, and dizziness sets in.
“Don’t kill her yet, Damon.  I need the child.  So do you.  The fountain could heal your body,” Pyrrha rebukes.

“
I’m just caressing her with death’s touch.  I promise I don’t plan to make it quick, easy, or painless,” he murmurs with an eerie touch as he basks in what seems like the moment of twisted pleasure he’s been desperate for.  “Her screams are delicious.”

I shudder slightly as his ashy grip releases me, and then I choke on the sweltering air forcing its way into my lungs.

“I’m sorry for what she did to you,” I cough out while grabbing my throat.  “It wasn’t me though.”

“
She’s in you, girl, and she’ll have to watch the demise of her standing child crumble beneath the touch of death I would’ve never had without her,” his fiery breath releases, and the lava streams begin boiling beside us.

His hands offer less of a fiery touch as they grip me around the throat and waist before launching me across the cavern.  The ground beneath me moves too rapidly to focus in on any one thing, and I scream out as I crash into the far wall.

Dust flies as I crumble the wall I just pounded, but my body doesn’t feel so invincible right now.  I feel pain - immense pain.

I grip my side as I slowly stand back to my feet, and then I see the tears evaporating from the lizard
’s eyes before they can drip as Camara desperately tries to think of something she can do.

“
Are you ready to talk?” Pyrrha taunts.

“
Go.  To.  Hell.” I strain out through pain and gritted teeth.

Damon smirks when he hears the belligerence in my tone because he knows he gets to continue his work.  More of his Jaculus brethren join us now, and I see the loathsome desire to make me suffer for the sins of my goddess.

“This is going to hurt more than a little,” Pyrrha snarls.

I cringe as I see the fist aimed at my face, and I feel the pain mingling with the stomach-taking sensation as I sail through the air once more.  I thud across the volcanic belly, and the lava sloshes as I splash into it.

I scream again as I feel the burn of the mortal thing that shouldn’t bring me pain, as I try to get the hell out of the miserable, toxic bath.

“
Rhea’s passion runs through these streams.  It’s divinely excruciating, isn’t it?” Pyrrha mocks.

I roll out of the scorching river, and my screams continue to echo through the hollowed tunnels apparently close by.  Camara
’s eyes can’t watch the gruesome fight she can’t aide me in, so they close.

Please wake up.  Someone wake the fuck up.

There’s no stir inside me to answer my plea though.  I’m alone, and there’s a good chance Devin’s not going to get here in time.

“
How I hope she continues her defiance,” Damon snickers with an ominous grin on his face.

He storms me again, but this time something moves so quickly it blurs in front of my eyes.  Shouts erupt through the air, but it
’s not mine - it’s Damon’s.

I barely realize what
’s gong on until I see him slapping into three of his brethren like pins for a bowling ball at the end of the lane.

Arms are suddenly around me as more flashing figures take the room, and I cry out tears of relief when Devin
’s eyes stare into mine.  My clothes have singed off from the lava dip I was forced to take, and his hands pull water from the stale air as he cools the remaining fragments still dripping from my skin.

The lava ashes over and falls from me like charred debris, relieving me of its painful touch.  He pulls his shirt over his head and puts it on me to offer me some modesty in my fragile, humbled, and tortured state.

“Stay back, baby,” he orders softly, and then he gently places me against the wall as the swarms surround them.

Camara hisses as she whips out her fans, and Kry smirks as he readies his spinning wheels of wielded steel.  Jace surges the room full of electricity, and his eyes dare someone to make the first move as he takes his place at Devin
’s side to aide in my protection.

“
No one touches her again.  Understood?” Devin murmurs to our group.

“
I’ve been watching for long enough,” Camara growls, and she flips her fans through the air to behead the naga serpent pile that had subdued me.

Deacon smirks as he releases the convulsing waves from his rod, and Kry responds by shredding a Jaculus within a blink.  Devin
’s ripple knocks them to the ground, and some are fated to never get up again from the powerful blow.

He has gotten so much stronger, and now Pyrrha
’s eyes widen when Damon breathes out the fire I had only felt the heat from.  Devin draws water from the air to extinguish the flames with effortless poise.

“
Just defend yourself from him.  Don’t attack!  He’s her trigger, you fool,” Pyrrha scolds to Damon.

“
She’s of no consequence,” Damon barks.  “She has no bond, and her stronger powers are blocked forever.  I’ll not fear the weak,” he snarls, and I see Devin smirk just before the water grabs Damon and launches him against the wall to cause more crumbling piles to fall from overhead.

“
You should fear us all,” Devin growls.

Pyrrha closes her eyes, and I feel the lava threatening to explode from the ground.  Camara, Kry, Deacon, and Hale are suddenly swept away by a rogue stream, and they
’re pinned under the scorching blanket of magma while struggling to fend off the mass of hellhounds surrounding them.

Jace hurls his electric waves, but more and more of the vicious beasts climb free from the belly of the volcano.  We
’re overwhelmed by the number of flaming mongrels, brightly colored harpies, the distorted, mangled Jaculus gang, and now the screams of the sirens erupt while Hale is still trapped under the folds of the restraining lava.

The odds against us grow more and more overwhelming as I stay crouched like a coward.  The monsters driven by vengeance and Rhea
’s power will be too much even for Devin.