The Dark-Hunters (724 page)

Aello jabbed at her feet, requiring her to dance to one pole, then jump to the next. One pole crashed to the ground, splintering into pieces as the rocks rose up literally to devour it.

Without thinking, he took a step forward, intending to lend a hand.

The manticore in front of him reared up and forced him back. “Help her, Bear, and she forfeits.”

And they would all die.…

But it was hard to sit back and watch as she risked everything for them.

Sam landed a vicious blow to Aello’s side. The Amazon wobbled and just when Dev was sure she’d go down, she flipped to the ground on the safe side. There, she ran to Sam’s poles and used her spear to start knocking them down before Sam could reach them.

Cursing, Sam ran as fast as she could while maintaining her balance. As Aello knocked over the last, Sam caught it with her foot and literally rode it to land beside Aello.

With a cry of fury, Aello tried to stab Sam. Sam caught her wrist and head butted her, driving her back. She sliced at Aello’s throat. The Amazon barely dodged it before she swung around with a cut Sam countered like a pro. Then Sam lifted her leg and kicked Aello back.

Realizing Sam was the better swordswoman and fighter, Aello threw a dagger at her and ran to the next obstacle.

Sam caught the dagger and automatically moved to toss it at Aello. Dev saw her barely stop herself before she threw it. Most people wouldn’t have had the integrity to do that, especially given the way Aello had been cheating.

But Sam was better than that. She refused the cheap shot and he couldn’t be prouder of her.

Go, baby …

The next obstacle had them climbing up a thick vine into a copse of trees they had to run across. The only problem was the trees were thin, and some kind of prehistoric bird of prey that looked like a cross between a pterodactyl and an eagle kept attacking them.

Sam reminded him of a gazelle as she leapt through the trees with a sure foot that a satyr would envy. When the bird dove at her, she fell to her knee and pulled an arrow from her quiver. With perfect aim, she let fly the arrow that embedded in the place where the bird’s wing met its body. Not a mortal wound, but one that forced the bird to land and leave her in peace.

Aello paused to stare agape at the shot. But as soon as Sam was on her feet, Aello returned to the competition. Unlike Sam, she hacked and stabbed at the birds until she made her way across.

The final challenge was to reach the girdle’s case.

Sam hesitated.

What was she waiting for? She’d be first if she’d just run straight to it.

But Sam stayed back. And when she put the back end of her spear into the ground and it instantly disintegrated, he understood why. It was redsand. So named for the lives that had been lost to it. Unlike quicksand, which was seldom deep or inescapable, redsand had been created by Hades to keep the damned penned in Tartarus. In the highly unlikely event one of them escaped, the sand would make sure they didn’t get far. It was like an acid that would eat through any form. Living. Dead.

Or in between.

All that would be left behind was your blood. Hence the name, redsand.

Aello laughed. “You give up?”

“Never.” Sam cupped her hands around her mouth and let loose a strange bird call. It came in pulses of three and was followed by a whistle.

Aello duplicated the sound.

Dev exchanged a scowl with Scorpio and Fang. Ethon, however, was grinning.

“What are they doing?” he asked the Spartan.

“They’re calling for Ares’s
arpaktiko pouli.
”

Dev rolled his eyes at a term he couldn’t even begin to wrap his lips around. “Dude, that’s all Greek to us. You ever notice there’s a reason why people pick on Greek?”

Ethon scoffed. “Only because they’ve never tried to speak Welsh. Trust me, we’ve got nothing on them.” Then he moved back to the important topic. “They are the war birds of Ares and were special to the Amazon nation.” He jerked his chin toward the women. “The Amazons used to keep them as pets.”

Dev looked back and sure enough, there was a flock of giant black birds headed toward them. Yeah … that would be like keeping Nessie in a wade pool. How in the name of pickles could they have ever domesticated something bigger than a semi?

Fang sucked his breath in sharply. “This can’t be good. They won’t even have to chew before they swallow us. And I have to say that being wolf jerky sucks.” He slid a look over to Ethon. “I bet Dark-Hunter jerky is chewy, though.”

Ethon shoved him.

Ignoring them, Dev prepared for war as the birds swooped down. Manticores or not, if those things went for Sam, he was going for them.

Sam picked up the bone necklace from around her throat. She placed it in her mouth and blew it sharply in a distinct pattern.

One of the birds cawed, then ducked down and glided on the wind. Sam held her hand up as if summoning it like an old friend. The huge bird landed in front of her on the ground. Spreading its wings, it snapped its head back and made one last cry before it settled down. It leaned forward, brushing its beak against her cheek.

Sam caught it against her and gave a light pat.

There was no missing the gleam of respect in Aello’s eyes as she watched Sam swing herself up onto the bird’s back. The bird bristled ever so slightly before it became acquainted with Sam’s foreign weight.

“Ya!” Sam shouted, kicking the bird into flight. Spreading its wings, it shot to the sky with a velocity that made Dev’s stomach draw tight. He didn’t know how she stayed on its back, but she managed well.

Aello duplicated the gesture. Unsheathing her sword, she went for Sam.

Fang let out a low whistle. “Anyone know that Amazons could ride a giant bird?”

Ethon gave him a
duh
stare. “Those of us who fought them, yeah, we know. How you think they kept kicking our asses?”

“’Cause you’re pansies. Everyone knows that.”

Ethon went for Fang, but Scorpio caught him. “He was joking, Ethon. Grab a sense of humor.” Especially since Fang’s sense of humor was close enough to Ethon’s that they should be relatives.

Ethon growled at Fang before he stood down.

Dev stayed focused on the fight in the sky. It was incredible to watch. Aello attacked and Sam countered as they circled in the air over the pedestal. How they could remain on the backs of the birds and fight was beyond him, especially since neither had a saddle nor bridle. They guided their mounts with their knees and held on with one hand.

Dev glanced down at the manticores. He still wanted to help Sam, but he knew better than to try. They looked a little too eager to kill.

Aello circled around, then dove for Sam. In a maneuver that Dev would have called impossible, Sam twisted with the bird and went straight up, parallel to the ground, letting the blow miss them entirely.

However, it overextended Aello’s reach and unbalanced her. With one sharp cry, she slipped from the back of the bird and went tumbling toward the ground.

Sam jerked her bird around and headed for her. Tucking its wings to its body, the bird looked like a black torpedo moving through the sky. They cut through the air, trying to catch Aello before she hit the ground. Just as Dev was sure Aello was a stain in the dirt, Sam caught her by the wrist and pulled the Amazon onto the back of the bird, and draped her on her stomach in front of her. Sam guided the bird to the shore, then set Aello down in a safe area before she headed back to the pedestal.

At first Dev thought Aello would summon another bird and go after her.

She didn’t.

They watched as Sam guided the bird to the pedestal and knocked over the glass case above the girdle. It landed on the sand and shattered, then dissolved. The cobras hissed and reared in protest of being disturbed. Sam diligently hovered above them, out of striking range. Using the tip of her spear, she very carefully hooked, then pulled the girdle up, taking care to shake off the cobras that tried to cling to it. Several of the snakes launched themselves at her and the bird from the pedestal. Sam had the bird pull back so that the cobras missed and fell to the ground. They were quickly devoured by the sand.

A minute later, it spewed out their bones, which were quickly dissolved into a red puddle.

Dev grimaced at the gory mess.

Sam ignored it as she draped the girdle over her lap, then turned the bird back toward them. She flew over Aello’s head to land just in front of him.

Her smile was wide as she dismounted and held her grandmother’s girdle high. Dev couldn’t have been prouder for her win.

Aello came running at her back.

Before he could warn her, Sam turned around, prepared to fight.

But that wasn’t the intent. Aello skidded to a halt, then dropped to one knee in front of Sam. Clapping her right fist to her left shoulder, she bowed her head reverently. “My queen.”

Sam froze at a title she hadn’t answered to in so many centuries that it seemed odd to hear it now. And it, along with the contest she’d just won, awoke vivid memories, good and bad, of a time and place she’d never have again. A past that burned inside her.

At one time, she’d lived for competitions such as this one. They had invigorated her. Had proven her honor and her skills as a warrior. How important all of that had been to her then.

Now she knew that things like that, while they were nothing to shirk at, were not the most critical things in life.

Family. Friends.

Love.

Those were what people needed to battle for. To hold tight to until their knuckles blanched. Everything else was just icing and while it tasted good, it wasn’t filling and it couldn’t sustain a person.

A life alone was hell itself.

Dev came up behind her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. She trembled as foreign emotions swept through her. He was her present, and right now she needed him to ground her to reality. All she wanted was to feel him there, against her forever.

This was what mattered to her.

He nuzzled her hair before he laid a chaste kiss on her cheek that set her on fire. “You were amazing.”

Funny, she didn’t feel that way. She’d done what she had to. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Aello looked up at her. “Why did you save me?”

How could she not? How could she have allowed a woman like Aello to perish so horribly over something so petty? “We are sisters. Why would I allow my family to die over a difference of opinion?”

Even though her own sister had killed her for something that in the end had amounted to nothing more than table scraps.

Aello took her hand and kissed it. “You do honor to Queen Hippolyte and it is with honor that you take her girdle. May you live a long, happy life.”

If the poor woman only knew.…

Not wanting to taint her heartfelt wishes, Sam inclined her head to Aello before she turned to look up at Dev. “Anyone know how we get out of here?”

Aello rose to her feet. “You must fly the birds as far south as possible. Once there, when the ground breaks, let it take you home. But you must keep your thoughts focused on where you want to go or it will take you where they drift.”

Ethon scoffed. “Who says that’s a bad thing? I hear the south of France is incredible this time of year.”

Fang gave him an arch stare. “It’s also daylight there. Can you say Krispy Kritter?”

“Well, there is that.” Ethon shrugged. “Fine. Take all the fun out of my dreams. You bastard.”

Sam summoned enough birds for all of them. Once they were mounted, she took flight. Something that wasn’t that intuitive to the men. Fang was the first to slide off. Then Scorpio.

Dev kept his seat.…

Barely.

Ethon held on, but only because he was low and had his legs locked like he was a terrified toddler.

Laughing, Sam circled back.

“Do these things have training wheels?” Fang asked.

“Unfortunately not. Just do what Ethon’s doing. Wrap yourself around them and they’ll fly on their own.”

Fang’s expression was filled with doubt. “What if it gets spooked?”

“You would be screwed,” Sam said in a dry tone. “Royally. Pray that doesn’t happen.”

Fang hissed at her before he pulled himself back up onto the back of the bird. Before he mounted, Scorpio used his whip to make a bridle. His bird fought it for several minutes, then settled down to take it.

He flashed a cocky fanged grin at her.

“Show-off,” Ethon sneered.

Laughing, Sam headed south with the men following behind her. It didn’t take too long to get to the border. There was a red haze around it that was so thin she could see the spot in New Orleans where they’d been.

Darker now on the human side of the veil, the haze made it look like infrared.

Sam urged her bird down so that she could dismount. The men quickly joined her as she fastened her grandmother’s sword belt around her waist.

Ethon tapped his fingers impatiently against his thigh. “Why is it when you want the ground to swallow you whole, it decides to stop trying?”

Fang sighed. “Watched Pot Syndrome.”

“Yeah.”

Sam ignored them as she heard something odd in the background. The birds chittered and danced, then flew off abruptly.

Dev met her gaze. “That can’t be a good sign.”

No, it couldn’t.

Sam glanced around as she tried to find the source of the sound … a sound that was steadily getting closer.

“Oh. My. God.”

She looked over at Ethon, who was staring up at the sky to his right. Following his gaze, she gasped.

“It’s the attack of the flying monkeys.”

Only these weren’t the cute little bluish-gray monkeys from
The Wizard of Oz
that were dressed in adorable hats and jackets. These were huge with fangs that made hers look like plastic Halloween wear. With dark-gray leathery skin, their eyes were yellow and their tails were razor-sharp.

They all drew weapons as the fire-breathing monkeys attacked.

Ethon dodged one that tried to blast him, then whirled and slashed at its wing. “You know, there are just some things you never expect to face even on this job. A flying primate that shoots fire out its nose is one of them.”