Kiss of a Star Artemis Lupine (11 page)

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.

Achilles sword slashed down just to the
right of me and I stared in shock at the severed arm that fell
beside my body. Achilles decapitated the owner of the arm and then
held his hand out to me. “Come, we must get you far away from
here.”

I looked towards Ares who was fighting with
two vampires at once. “I can’t.”

Achilles groaned in frustration and picked
me up in his arms. “He will get over me touching you as long as
you’re safe.”

I looked around us and realized that we were
vastly outnumbered as more dhampirs and vampires and even a group
of ogres joined the fight from the depths of the forest. Achilles’
body glowed and the blue vines on his upper chest and arms throbbed
in time with his heart and then wings spread from his back. His
wings matched the color of the vines on his skin. They were one of
the most beautiful things I’d ever seen.

“Where did you sword go?” I asked
curiously.

Achilles smiled down at me, making my breath
catch in my throat. “Perhaps now is not the time to discuss
that?”

I looked at the fighting going on and
blushed in embarrassment. “Right.” It wasn’t my fault that I was
easily distracted.

Achilles wings moved and we were suddenly
above the fight. “Ares!” Achilles called. Ares looked up and
growled loudly. “I’m taking her to safety. Meet us in your
meadow.”

Ares roared in anger and began attacking
more fiercely, killing four vampires and two dhampirs in a matter
of seconds.

Achilles moved his wings and we were up
above the trees and the people below looked like small ants. I
wrapped my arms around Achilles’ neck and shook with fear. “What’s
wrong?” Achilles asked softly.

I closed my eyes and put my face against his
neck. “I hate heights.”

Achilles laughed loudly, his laugh shaking
his chest and me against it. “A fairy afraid of heights? Now that
is original.”

I pulled back to glare at him, but instead
found myself staring at the trees zooming past us like green blurs.
We were flying incredibly fast and yet I felt no wind pressing
against me. I looked up and noticed the slight blue tinge of a
shield around us. “Why do you have a shield around us?”

“I thought it might frighten you more if you
felt the wind pressing against you while we flew.”

“Oh.” He was right. I probably would have
been more scared. I took a deep breath and inhaled his smell.
Instantly I relaxed and felt safe.

My grip loosened from his neck and Achilles
smiled at me. “See, it’s not so bad.”

I refused to look down again. “It’s not the
fact that we’re high up, it’s the fear of falling down.”

His smile disappeared as he grew serious.
“Do you think I would drop you?”

I pulled my gaze from his lips up to his
eyes. “I don’t know. I hardly know you.”

“Whose fault is that?” he asked sadly.

I looked over his face as I tried to gauge
what mood he was in. He was mad, sad and yet seemed happy all at
the same time. “Why didn’t you come to me before?” I asked.

Achilles looked at me in shock a moment
before sighing. “Your father forbade me from visiting you. I didn’t
understand why before, but now that I know he hadn’t told you what
you really are it makes perfect sense. If you had seen me, then you
would know that you aren’t human and he wanted you to think you
were human for as long as he could.”

My heart was beating faster than normal as
we flew farther and farther away from Ares. My skin started itching
and my breath came in short pants. Achilles’ wings stilled and we
began falling down towards the ground. I grabbed on to his neck and
closed my eyes as we fell. I knew that he wouldn’t hurt himself and
that I shouldn’t be worried, but I couldn’t control my emotions
very well with Ares so far away.

Achilles was suddenly walking and I realized
we’d landed. I opened my eyes and looked at the beautiful meadow we
were in. Wild flowers filled most of the meadow and added amazingly
bright purples, pinks, reds and blues to the area.

Achilles walked towards an area with tree
trunks set around a circle of rocks where a camp fire could be
started. Achilles laid me down in the grass and wild flowers and
looked up at the moon. My breathing had leveled out, but my heart
was still beating fast and my skin still tingled. Could that mean
Ares was closer? I sat up and looked at Achilles who was sitting on
a log and starting a fire using his sidhe powers. “Did you call
this Ares’ meadow?”

Achilles moved the pieces of wood in the
fire around before turning to me. “Yes. We’re actually halfway
between the werewolves and the sidhe and this is Ares’ land. This
spot was his favorite to go to for meditations as I recall.”