Page 69

“I know why,” the voice was relentless but gentler now.“You see them in your mind every time you close your eyes.You feel them in your veins, their blood burning through your system as yours once did in them.You hear their voices, their cries for justice, for help you couldn’t give—”

“I’m not a vampire!I hearnothing—”

“You are vampire!” the voice was terrible, all-encompassing, and suddenly cruel.How did it change so quickly?Why wouldn’t itstop?“Just as I am mage, and Pritkin and I are Pythia.We are one, the three of us joined in this triumvirate of power—”

Power.

It was the wrong word, and he knew it as soon as he’d said it, but it was too late.Because what was I doing, standing here, allowing him to...do whatever he was doing?I had to fight my way out, had to get back there, had tofeed—

“You’re losing her,” someone else’s voice came as I screamed in frustration and fury and clawed at the darkness like a wild thing.It cost more power than I could afford, but this time, it worked.I tore free of the blackness and stood there, panting in the dim moonlight that suddenly seemed so bright.

Instantly, I saw them—a dozen people, maybe more, scattered around the big room.The dark-haired man, over to the left, shining like a star with stolen power; the man called Jonas, bleeding and disheveled and wild-eyed, near the portal to the right, holding back with outflung arms a bunch of murderous warriors who looked like they wanted to die tonight; the witches, gathered in a small knot straight ahead, staring at me with expressions varying from horrified to wondrous; and the cadre of fey behind them, the silver-haired one gripping his pike as if it would matter.

I could take them all, even the other demigod, who had expended the last of her power opening the portal and couldn’t oppose me.I could drain them, get back what the dark-haired man had stolen, and recoup my lost energy.And then bend the portal to my will and step through to another feast, a better one, before heading off to—

My head jerked up as a sound rang in the thin night air, a distant, bellowing challenge, but one fast coming closer.I screamed in frustration and fury, answering it even with the human voices echoing in my head and all around, yelling for me to stop.Fools, didn’t they know?

The portal’s power was like a blaring siren across the desert.That much energy was far too great for my kind to ignore, and they were coming.And Iwantedthem to.

I was weakened, but they were stupid and full of the energy I needed, far more so than the half-creature I’d been trying to reach.There were three of these, and they were fat, somehow.How had they gotten fat?

Where had they found so much energy here, of all places?

And then the first one burst through the wall, sending the humans and the rest scattering, and I leaped into the fray, taking on the so-called god who had stopped to stare at the portal.Its glowing color drew his attention, if only for an instant, but it was enough.It would have to be!

I tore into him, golden ribbons of power bursting out of my body and falling onto his flesh, starting the feed.He roared back, confused and furious, and I laughed because, yes, he was fat!And slow and stupid—too stupid to run, which was his only hope.

For I was ravenous, and he—

Was followed by two more.

They were the others I had sensed but not heard, for they had kept silent.These were different; they still had some semblance of a mind and appeared to be working together.And I wasglad, the joy of battle singing in my veins, the dumb one’s power surging into me as he fell to his knees, almost drained already as the other two faced off against me, one on my left, the other moving to my right.

They would flank me, or they would try.But while there were two of them, and they were replete with power, they weren’t me.I was Artemis’s daughter, and it was time to prove it.Time to feast!

I roared a challenge in their faces even as their power flew out at me, trying to connect, to drain me as I had done to the other.But he fell away from me now, a dried husk, and I somersaulted over the one on the left, evading his attack, and took him from behind.Plunging my own power, which was more like golden spears now, into his glowing flesh and didn’t feed.

Instead, I used them to rip him apart, wanting to see if his friend would be stupid enough—

And yes, he was stupid enough!Chunks of boiling golden energy spilled everywhere from the writhing god, scattering all over the floor while he screamed in pain and loss.And his friend, who should have been helping him and feeding off me while he had the chance, was instead chasing those chunks!The feelers of power he had been sending at me suddenly glommed onto them instead, and yes, it strengthened him, but it cost, oh, so much more!

He gobbled up some of his only ally’s power and then turned on me, only to find that his friend was half dead, and I was shining like my mother.

God, she had loved it, hadn’t she?I thought, jumping at him.The thrill of this, the pureness of it.No hiding, no running, no constant second-guessing.No feelings of inadequacy burning in my gut every second of every day, just kill or be killed: glorious victory or ignominious defeat.

And the other understood it, too, fashioning a spear of golden light and lunging for me.I met it with a whip, turning one of my feeders into a weapon with a thought and lashing it around that spear before jerkingback.It came flying to me, and I gobbled it up, then used my whip to lash him mercilessly, flaying off pieces of his power, more and more and more, until there was a storm of it, a hurricane of glittering confetti, spinning and flying and demolishing the remaining warehouse as if a bomb had gone off!

But it wasn’t a bomb; it was fuel, so much and so fast that I thought I would go mad with it!I staggered under the weight of all that power, drunkenly reeling around the space yet still slashing at my opponent, who was trying to reabsorb it and rebuild his strength.But not fast enough.

Instead, he completely flew apart, unable to hold form anymore.And then I turned on the wounded one, who screamed in fear and clawed at the floor, trying to get away.And was still doing so when his light went out and the final bit of his energy was absorbed, when I stood alone and roared my challenge into the night—

And was heard.

I paused, moonlight bathing the scene in silver while golden glitter spun around me like a whirlwind, the night coming alive with the energy I was struggling to absorb now because I was so replete.And listened.Far away on the distant horizon, I heard them, so many of my kind that I couldn’t count them all, who had stopped what they were doing and perked up their ears.

And then they did more than that.I could feel their energy all around me suddenly, tiny bits of it buzzing like gnats.Not biting me, not attacking if they even could from this distance, but questioning, wondering, asking: who isthis?

I batted at them like flies, like the annoying storm they were, but they didn’t go away.More joined them all the time, with questions crowding me thick and fast.Who are you?What are you?Where did you come from?What do youwant?