Healed by Fire (9 page)

“The sooner we get this over with, the
sooner you can be back in her arms,” Victor said from my side.

I turned and smiled at him. “I know. I
just…”

“Don’t like leaving her with your half
brother, especially since you can tell she has some of her
memories? Achilles is the most moral Sidhe I know and he won’t make
any advances on her while you are out risking your life. Besides,
what you’re doing isn’t just for her to regain her memories. She is
the key to everything.”

“I don’t think Achilles will try anything
either, but…what if she starts remembering and I’m not there? What
if she only remembers him and not me?”

Victor rolled his eyes. “You two dreamed
again, right?”

“Don’t patronize me, Victor. I know that we
are still connected, but I have no way of knowing what Hera did to
Artemis. If the dragons aren’t as powerful as we think, she could
end up dying.” I wouldn’t let that happen. I refused to let her die
now that I’d found her.

“Let’s just focus on getting to Rhea’s
Temple,” he said softly.

We increased our speed and made it to the
City of Rhea, which was the gatekeeper to the Temple, faster than
I’d thought we would. Even during the human reign this had been
left untouched. Of course since it was in the Himalayas and
freezing cold, I wasn’t surprised that even after the uprising
Maurice had left it alone as well. Rhea was the strongest being on
the planet and I for one would not want to be on her bad side.

“It’s more deserted than I thought it would
be,” Victor said angrily.

I looked over and saw his fangs fully
extended, which was something he only did when scaring someone or
when he couldn’t retract them due to his overwhelming thirst.

“I told you to eat on the way here. You’ll
just have to settle for a rabbit to quench the fire for now.”

Victor grumbled and we started through the
empty town. The buildings looked freshly made, but they had to have
been at least a thousand years old judging by the architecture. The
wolf side of me felt uneasy about walking into someone else’s den,
but this was for Artemis so I would just have to deal with the
feeling.

Victor disappeared a moment and then
reappeared with two rabbits. He drained the blood from them and
then tossed them to me. “You need to eat too, in case Mother asks a
price from you.”

I ate the meat from the skinny rabbits and
snapped off one of the rabbit’s feet. I held it out to Victor.
“Want a good luck charm?”

He swatted the foot away when I waved it at
him and he shook his head in disgust. “I never understood why the
humans used to believe that. And it was rather disgusting that they
kept the piece of animal on their key chains of all places.” I
smiled and then Victor sighed. “I do miss the human world though. I
miss the restaurants, the movies and most of all the women who
threw themselves at me because they wanted to please me and were
attracted to me and thought it was exotic to be with a
vampire.”

“You mean women don’t throw themselves at
your feet now?”

Victor groaned. “Yes they do, but only
because I’m the big bad vampire prince. I’m not my father, Ares,
you know that. I don’t like to be feared.” I arched my eyebrow and
Victor smiled. “Okay, I like to be feared a little, but not all the
time and definitely not from the women I want to bed.”

A loud growling brought my attention to the
skies above us. The moon was gone and I couldn’t see, but I
definitely felt like I was being watched. “What is it, Victor? I’m
blind here.” I caught the dim shape of something flying through the
air above us, but I couldn’t make out the form.

“It looks like a griffin,” he said a bit in
shock.

I started running and yelled, “Race you to
the door!”

Victor caught up to me easily as the
griffins began diving at me and pulling at my hair. Their claws
raked my chest and back, drawing blood.

“I get the wolf. You can have the leech,”
said a deep and growly voice.

“No, he’s a halfbreed and we agreed that I’d
get the next halfbreed that came through,” argued a second
voice.

I was beginning to worry when a commanding
voice so beautiful and melodic that it made me stop running and
stand still, yelled, “None shall touch him! He has a golden
aura!”

Ahead of us was the temple steps and
standing in the doorway was a woman more beautiful than any other I
had seen. She had hair the color of wheat and eyes of emeralds. She
was so powerful that I dropped to my knees instantly and bowed my
head. “Mother,” I whimpered.

She floated down the steps of the temple and
knelt in front of me. She touched my face and frowned in concern.
“You are in pain. What do you need from me, halfbreed son?”

She was right, I was in pain. Pain at having
been separated from the woman I loved. Pain at not knowing for sure
if she was alive or dead. Pain at not knowing if she’d been with
another man in the past one hundred years. Pain at my love not
knowing me.

“I need your consent to continue being with
my mate. It is the price the dragons asked in order to assist me in
recovering the memories which were stolen from her.” I could barely
whisper with her so close to me. She was the true Mother of us all,
the Mother of even Asena.

“You love her more than anyone else. You
have not touched another woman even though you have been separated
for over one hundred years. I have not met a man so devoted as you
and with a perfect golden aura in many years.”

“Golden aura?” I asked.

She smiled. “When a man is pure of heart,
void of evil and knows the love of a perfect match, his aura will
glow golden. I will give you my consent…”

I looked up at her and smiled happily.

“But, you must defeat my champion,” she
finished.

“Your champion?” Victor asked.

Rhea turned to Victor and laid her hand
against his cheek. “Oh, son of the Darkness. You are powerful, but
not powerful enough. I think I shall grant you a gift as well if
this task is completed. Yes, yes, I will give you more power if you
and the halfbreed can defeat my champion.”

“Who is your champion?” I finally managed to
ask.

She wagged her finger at me. “You must agree
or decline first.”

“I agree. I will do anything to have my mate
back,” I answered without any more hesitation. I really hoped her
champion wasn’t that great of a fighter.

She threw her head back and laughed
maniacally.

I looked at Victor, but he only shrugged.
Women were weird, apparently from the beginning of time.

Rhea looked back at me. “I do not expect you
to be able to kill my champion since I would not have picked a weak
being for such an honor, but I do expect you or your vampire friend
to be able to draw blood. If one drop of blood is drawn from him,
then you will have what you ask for and your vampire friend will
have more power than any other in the world. You agree?”

Victor and I nodded our heads. I stood up
and brushed myself off. This was my chance. The one thing I had to
do to get Artemis back. I would not fail.

The temple doors flew open and I watched in
awe as a tall man with thick cords of muscle and a perfect physique
walked down the steps. His eyes were the purest blue I’d seen, even
purer than my own. He stopped beside Rhea and asked, “You summoned
me?”

Rhea hugged the man and whispered, “They
need only draw a drop of blood from you. Fight well, Hyperion. Do
not disappoint me.”

Hyperion? Oh gods.

He stood up and I knew it had to be true.
The father of the moon, stars and the sun. The father of all
preternaturals.

“Oh, crap,” Victor said softly.

I ripped my pants off, took a half-shift and
then launched myself at Hyperion just as Victor charged at him too.
Hyperion smiled, rolled his shoulders in a circle and said, “It’s
been so long since I’ve had a challenge.”

~~~

I jumped in the air as I dodged Blu’s tail
and then shot him in the back with fire. I blocked an attack from
Theseus behind me, smiling at my quick reflexes. I grabbed onto
Theseus’ arm, tossed him over my shoulder and dropped onto his
fallen body, delivering blow after blow to his face and body.

“Enough!” Blu roared behind me. I stood up
off of Theseus and prepared to attack Blu, but he pinned me to the
ground with his foot and growled at me. “I understand that you are
worried about the princes, but you are taking it out on Theseus’
body.”

I hated being pinned. As a wolf I hated
being trapped. I could see my body beginning to glow in the
reflection of Blu’s eye. He grabbed me and then tossed me into the
air. I pulled my wings from my back and flapped them furiously to
keep from flying any farther away. I started to fly back towards
Blu, but something slammed into my side and sent me careening
sideways with my wings pinned against my body. I struggled against
what held me until I looked up and realized it was Theseus holding
me.

He let us fall to the ground and then pinned
me on my back to the ground. “I command you to stop.”

I growled at him and bared my teeth. “Get
off of me. You do not command me.”

“Are you going to behave?” he asked in a
reasonable and irritating tone.

I struggled against his hold, but then he
used his power to make a shield and slammed it against me. I gasped
in pain and then anger overrode my other senses. I used my wings to
push us up off of the ground and changed my hand into a paw to stab
him in the stomach, but suddenly I was paralyzed.

“You are going to hurt someone you do not
wish to harm if you don’t control yourself, Hatchling,” said the
Council.

“I can’t just sit here while he’s out on
such a dangerous mission! I can hardly sleep and I need to do
something!” I yelled. I had never before yelled at a dragon, much
less the Council and I expected a punishment, but at that moment I
didn’t care. The shirt the werewolf prince had given me had lost
his scent quickly and I knew it was my own fault for smelling it
and touching it so much.

“Very well, we will teach you a technique
which will consume you, body and mind, until you have learned it.
We warn you it will not be easy to master and may destroy you if
you are not powerful enough.”

“Please. I need to do something,” I said in
a much quieter voice. I knew it was an honor for the dragons to
teach anyone and that I should feel humbled, but the churning in my
stomach at the thought of losing the prince was too much.

“Go wash, eat and then return to us with an
open mind and quiet heart,” said the Council.

I bowed to them and hurried to do as they
asked. I washed my hair and body, ate some meat and bread and then
sat in the center of my tent with my legs crossed as I meditated.
Normally a request that I have a quiet heart was easy, but since
meeting the man who claimed to be my mate and who I had an
undeniable bond with, I couldn’t. I closed my eyes and relaxed my
body in sections. Once my body was relaxed I focused on the inner
turmoil consuming me and slowly released it.

The truth about who I was would be revealed
once the prince comes back. The prince will return safely because
he swore he would and because he is one of the most powerful beings
on the earth.

Continuing in this fashion I released all of
my worries and quieted my heart. Feeling better than I had in weeks
I walked out of my tent and to the waiting Council.

I bowed down before them and whispered, “I
apologize for my discourteous behavior earlier. Please forgive my
insolent actions and words.”

“You are forgiven, Hatchling. Are you ready
to learn what we are offering to teach you?”

I stood up and nodded my head. “Yes. I
am.”

Blu stood off to the right, watching and
waiting. I knew he wasn’t just curious about what they were going
to teach me, but he was also there to protect me if something
happened.

The Council began humming and singing and
then disappeared. I stared at the empty spot where five large
dragons had just occupied. The humming returned behind me. I
whipped around and found the Council now behind me.
Translocation.

I moaned in pain as a memory of a beautiful
woman transporting me from a fight to a strange town flashed across
my eyes. I opened my eyes and found that I’d dropped to my knees
and Blu was humming with his nose against my head as he tried to
heal the pain.

“What did you see?” asked the Council.

“A woman I believe Sidhe, though at the time
I didn’t know that. She teleported me from a fight with vampires to
a town in the woods. There are periods of pain in between and I
don’t seem to have memories for those brief lapses, but…” I
screamed in pain again as I understood that she was the woman who
had stolen my memories.

“Good, Hatchling. Now we know who the woman
is that stole your memories. She is a very powerful Sidhe and it
will not be easy to break the barrier she placed.”

“Barrier? You mean I still have my memories?
She didn’t steal them away?”

The Council looked at me in confusion. “Why
do you believe they were stolen?”

I groaned as the pain in my head returned as
I recalled specifics of the memory. “I remember that the images
slipped out of my head, like mud slipping through my fingers. It
was as though she plucked them from my head.”

The Council went completely silent as they
communicated to each other. It was rare that the Council was silent
for such a long period of time and it made me very nervous. Finally
they said, “We will not discuss this further until the wolf prince
has returned. Now, let us teach you how to teleport yourself and
others.”

I stood up and patted Blu’s nose
reassuringly. “Okay.”