Kiss of a Star Artemis Lupine (18 page)

I gasped and my hands covered my mouth as I
fought not to laugh. The fight didn’t last long as both Ares and I
broke down and laughed hysterically. Achilles wiped the snow from
his face and looked from me to Ares. “Now I understand what all the
raucous was.” He bent down and started making a large snow
ball.

I shook my head and held up my hand. “No,
Achilles, don’t you even…” He tossed the large ball with deadly
accuracy. It hit me in the chest and knocked me off my feet. I
groaned as I sat up and glared at the laughing Princes who seemed
for the first time to have forgotten their differences as they
shared a laugh at my expense. I made two balls and threw them at
the two men, making them stop laughing and wipe at their faces.

Achilles looked at Ares. “Alliance?”

Ares smiled at Achilles. “Alliance.”

Well that couldn’t be good. “Hey, no teaming
up its not…” I screeched as I was forced to duck from the first few
balls they tossed at me. I glared at the two men, but when I saw
their smiling faces and saw them working together for the first
time in who knew how many years, I couldn’t get mad. So, I dodged
as many of their balls as I could while throwing my own at them. We
were all laughing and smiling until Hera walked out onto the roof
with Koda and ruined our escapade by glaring at us. “It’s time to
eat and then you will speak to the last group of humans before we
return.”

“What a buzzkill she turned out to be,” I
muttered under my breath. Unfortunately I’d forgotten that she had
enhanced hearing just like everyone else with me. Koda snickered
then tried to play it off as a cough, while Achilles and Ares tried
their best to keep straight faces.

Hera rolled her eyes and huffed,
“
Children
.”

~~~

I was exhausted from all of our traveling.
None of the humans had tried to attack me, though some had been
frightened. I couldn’t know how many I’d saved, if any, until after
it was all done, but I felt good for trying. We returned to the
Light Court and Achilles’ chambers.

I lay in the bed between Achilles and Ares
who had agreed to share the bed with me so that both could touch me
while they slept. I stared up at the ceiling and wondered how we
were going to work out something between the three of us. I knew I
couldn’t be with both Ares and Achilles, but my heart and the magic
binding us didn’t. Achilles suggested a fifty-fifty trade where I
spent half the week with Ares and half the week with Achilles, but
Ares refused to let me out of his sight, especially with our new
knowledge that Maurice was after me.

Ares, Achilles and Koda sat around a table
inside Achilles’ chambers discussing what to do next. I’d been
sitting idly by, letting them debate with each other, but I
couldn’t hold back anymore.

“There’s only one clear choice, but we need
Victor in order to do it.”

“What choice would that be?” Victor asked
from the doorway.

I stood up and smiled at the handsome
vampire. “Victor. It’s nice to see you.”

Victor was wearing all black and looking as
sleek as ever. His all black eyes no longer bothered me, but made
me realize exactly how powerful he was. He looked me up and down
and smiled. “You’re even more beautiful than you were when I first
met you. Gaining your sidhe powers has done wonders for you.”

He walked forward and hugged me, ignoring
Ares’ growl. I stood on tiptoe and kissed his cheek. “You’re such a
sweet talker. I just hope you’re willing to help us.”

Victor and I stared at each other for ten
full minutes of silence as I played out my plan in my head to him.
Victor’s vampiric ability, unlike any other of his kind, was to be
able to hear people’s thoughts. Victor listened intently and then
arched one of his elegant black eyebrows. “Have you discussed this
with Ares?”

I rolled my eyes. “Of course not. I wanted
to discuss it with you first.”

Victor laughed. “You’re getting to know him
better. That’s good.” He looked at Achilles and his eyebrow rose
again. “You bound her?”

I groaned. “How can everybody tell
that?”

Victor waved his hand in the air between
Achilles and me. “Anyone with slight magical abilities can see the
silver rope dangling between you two.”

“I can’t,” I said sadly.

Victor patted my hand. “You will. You’re
still very young. You have to remember, the rest of us have had
hundreds of years to practice.”

Ares cleared his throat. “Can we get back to
the matter at hand?”

Victor laughed. “Yes, of course.” He looked
at me and sighed. “I fear Artemis is right. The only way to end the
attacks on her and the craziness that is my father, is to fight
him.”

Ares jumped up and shook his head. “No!
Absolutely not! I will not risk Artemis in a fight against Maurice
and his flock!”

“Excuse me,” said an incredibly deep French
accented voice.

Ares looked towards the doorway and then
grabbed me in his arms and growled loudly.

The man was obviously a vampire, sleek built
yet omitting loads of evil. He should have had a sign above his
head that read, “badass”.

He smiled and spoke softly, “I did not mean
to upset you
Groll
.”

Ares snarled. “State your intentions.”

The man bowed. “I have come at Prince
Victor’s request.”

Ares looked at Victor. “You brought,
Fear
?! You brought your father’s number one assassin into
the presence of my mate?!”

Victor held up his hand and Ares stopped his
rant, setting me down on my feet. Victor pointed at the man Ares
referred to as Fear. “One, he is not my father’s assassin anymore.
I blood bound him to me. Two, I brought him to assist me. Three, we
will need his expertise if we are to fight my father’s newest
vampires. Four, I like him. He plays chess better than you.”

I raised my hand and everyone looked at me.
I held up one finger. “One, why did you call him ‘
Groll’
?” I
held up a second finger. “Two, why did you call him ‘Fear’?”

Koda spoke from just behind me, having
apparently moved forward when Ares growled, “He is referred to as
‘Fear’ because that’s the last thing you feel before he kills you.
You don’t have a chance to look behind you or even to think someone
might be behind you. All you know is that you feel fearful and then
boom, you’re dead.”

Fear spoke then to me, “
Groll
literally means Anger. Ares was the embodiment of
Groll
for
centuries.”

Ares had relaxed by then and linked his
fingers with mine. “You will find that I no longer hold that
title.”

Fear laughed. “Oh, I think you do. Perhaps
you are no longer
Groll
all the time as you once were, but
he lives within you. Given the right circumstances I believe
Groll
may resurrect himself. I believe when you fight to
protect your mate you are not as calm as one should be.”

Ares growled. “Careful, Fear.”

The vampire bowed gracefully. “I meant no
disrespect.”

“What’s your real name?” I asked Fear.

He smiled and it made my heart beat faster
in alarm. “You need not be frightened of me. I will not harm you.
My name is Dmitri.” He was suddenly in front of me and kissing the
back of my hand. He inhaled loudly and smiled. “You smell
good.”

Ares growled. “Step back from my mate.”

Dmitri winked at me and then was back by the
door. How did he move so fast? I couldn’t even see a blurred trail
of him.

Victor, who had been standing idly by, now
began speaking, “We need to go to my father and speak to him and if
he won’t listen to reason attack him. He won’t expect us to come
there.”

“He won’t expect us to come there because
it’s a suicide mission!” Ares yelled as he started pacing around
the room.

Victor scoffed. “You have two of the most
powerful vampires, the second in line of the sidhe and Artemis at
your side and you believe we cannot defeat an army of vampires and
the King? You have no faith in us.”

Ares rolled his eyes. “We have five, I will
not count Artemis because I don’t want her to fight. So, five of us
against two hundred or more vampires, some of them three hundred
years old, and you think we can win?”

Victor smiled with a gleam in his solid
black eyes. “Yes.”

Ares sighed. “I hate when you have that
look. It means you have a plan that will involve me almost
dying.”

Victor groaned. “That was only once.”

Ares said, “No, it was twice! The first time
was when we battled the dragons. The second time was when we
battled Genghis Khan.”

Victor rubbed his temples. “The dragon
incident was my fault, but you’re the one who felt insulted by
Genghis Khan. I didn’t want to start a war with him.”

Ares folded his arms over his chest. “You
called his mother a whore.”

Victor spread his arms out in emphasis. “She
was! She took money from men in exchange for…”

“Dragons are real?” I asked loudly to
sidetrack them.

Ares smiled. “They were real.”

My mouth gaped open. “You killed all the
dragons?”

Victor said, “It wasn’t our fault really.
The dragons wouldn’t stop attacking us and before we knew it we’d
kill all of them.”

“What about their eggs?” I asked.

Ares and Victor looked at each other a
moment before looking back at me. “What do you mean?” Ares
asked.

I laughed. “You’re kidding, right?” Both men
just stared at me. “Dragons are born from eggs, like birds, right?”
Both men nodded their heads. “So, if you killed all of the living
dragons that still leaves behind whatever eggs they had laid.”

Victor laughed. “Well that explains the
dragon sightings a few years ago.”

Ares shook his head. “Why didn’t we think
about the eggs?”

Victor shrugged. “Perhaps because we were
both trying not to bleed to death from the various wounds we had.
It was a long, delirious trip back down that mountain.”

Achilles raised his hand and everyone turned
to him. “I could bring a few additional sidhe with us.”

Ares growled. “No.”

“You would rather risk Artemis’ life than
have a few extra sidhe around you?” Achilles asked angrily.

Ares’ jaw clenched tightly for a few moments
before he spoke. “I would rather not have to owe you any
favors.”

Achilles muttered under his breath and then
said, “What if we agree that it’s mutually beneficial for us to
assist you and agree that you owe us nothing?”

Ares growled and I ran my hand down his
forearm. “It would help if we had some extra magic. Especially
since fire is a big weakness for vampires.”

Ares sighed and wrapped his arms around me.
“I hate it when you’re right.”

I laughed. “No, you just hate it when you’re
wrong.”

* * *

It took them two days to agree upon the sidhe
we would be bringing and then an additional day to agree on the
plan. Each day of sitting made my irritation grow and with it, the
need to kill something. It horrified me how easy it was for me to
kill now. It was as if once you killed someone the next ones were
nothing since you’d already broken the barrier. I wanted to believe
that things could be accomplished by simple discussions, but after
living in this world for only a few weeks I realized that killing
was the only way to solve anything with them.

My attraction to Achilles continued to grow
and soon I found I needed his touch almost as much as I needed
Ares’. Ares explained that my attraction and the need for touch
were side effects from being bound to Achilles.

Every day we were in the Light Court I
practiced my magic. With Erebus’ help I was able to summon fire as
easily as twitching my finger. He also helped me learn how to fly
and how to use my wings properly. Koda and Dmitri helped me with my
fighting skills at other times. By the fourth day when we were
preparing to depart I felt as though I could take on the entire
vampire army on my own.

Ares prepared a bag for me with some of the
dresses and things from the dresser in Achilles’ room. I sat on the
bed behind him as he packed. “So, we’re going to walk in the front
door of the vampire estate and just ask to speak to Maurice?”

Ares nodded his head as he stuffed a few
pairs of socks into the duffel bag. “Yep.”

“Are you scared?” I asked him.

He stopped packing and turned around to face
me. “I’m only worried about you. Victor is right that Maurice will
not stop hunting you. I won’t let him have you.”

I smiled. “I know that you’ll protect me as
best as you can. I’m not asking that. I’m asking what you feel as
you prepare for a battle?”

Ares shrugged. “I’ve gone into thousands of
battles. Two thirds of those battles I wasn’t expected to win and I
did. I guess it’s like stage fright. After the first few times you
get over the fear and just accept that you have to do it.”

Ares and I were alone in the bedroom since
everyone else was off preparing for the battle. I hopped down off
the bed and ran my fingertip down his chest. “This could be our
last night together,” I whispered.

Ares tilted my chin up and looked in my
eyes. “This will not be our last night together. I will not lose
you.” He kissed me with the same passion with which he spoke to me.
It made my toes curl and my head spin. He picked me up and laid me
down gently on the bed, as he began untying the dress and corset.
He was being gentle when I knew he was holding himself back, the
need to mate was driving us both crazy. With both hands I grabbed
the collar of his shirt and ripped it in half, exposing his upper
body. He had a truly splendid body. I ran my hands along his
muscles and then kissed his upper chest. Ares moaned and then
ripped my dress and corset in half, exposing me. It took me less
than ten seconds to tear at his pants, but it was worth it. The
first time I’d ever seen him naked I hadn’t truly appreciated his
glory. Now, I sat back and took in every inch of him, starting from
the top of his head and ending at his knees.