Chapter 12 Fighting to the Death, and Other Womanly Pursuits #2
“Were the human casualties avoidable?” Persephone held my shoulders as she screamed in my face.
I collapsed to my knees next to Lucia. Leaning over, I desperately gathered pieces of her ripped shirt and pressed them against her wound.
My chest ached with pain as I tried to staunch the bleeding.
She said something, but I couldn’t hear it.
I couldn’t see anything; panic, desperation, and exhaustion beat against me. I pressed tingling fingers against her chest like it could save her.
The group sobbed and chanted in Latin.
Screeeeeeeech.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. Choking on remorse, I shouted, “Put pressure on the wound,” as I pushed myself to my feet and staggered away.
It’s my fault.
I had to protect the rest of them.
Stumbling, I turned toward where Fluffy Jr. was still attacking the first Titan. It was all a blur.
“Salvator!” an old man cried out in Latin behind me. Savior.
Knees buckling, I leaned over and puked, unable to handle the agony coursing through me.
The second Titan rose from the ruined table.
I wiped bile from my bloody lips.
You survived the crucible. This is nothing.
The first Titan let out a hideous screech and violently flung Fluffy Jr. off—he yelped as he rolled across the lawn toward me in a blur of white, then he stood up on all fours by my side.
Nyx hissed weakly from somewhere nearby.
Hunched over, I reached into my pocket. Bits of mangled metal filled my hand as I pulled out what was Augustus’s pager—it was completely crushed. I dropped the pieces onto the grass.
There was nothing left to do.
Both Titans stood taller, their bones crunching back into place.
Blindly, I grabbed at the extra holster Kharon had given me—I pulled out a Spartan gun with my left hand and a hunting dagger with my right.
Nyx slithered up and around my shoulders.
The Titans stalked toward us.
Acceptance washed over. I couldn’t go far, but I could still try.
“Domus,” I screamed, pushing my right leg out so that Fluffy Jr. was touching it, as I was stretched into a million little pieces.
I blinked—we’d leapt across the lawn.
Thirty feet away, the Titans ran into each other in a blur of talons as they swiped at where we’d stood a second before.
Squinting, I fired.
Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop. Pop.
The Titans turned with confusion, black blood spraying as bullets hit them—they zeroed in on where I stood.
Wings unfurling, they leaned forward to fly at me but stumbled and looked back—their appendages were torn with bullet holes. Shaking their heads with frustration, the Titans hobbled forward at a rapid clip.
Well, this has been fun.
The pain in my back was unbearable; the ringing in my ear was now a high-pitched wail.
Might as well go out with a bang.
The Titans lunged for me at the same time—I pressed my leg against Fluffy Jr. and focused on a spot across the grassy park, one hundred feet away.
“DOMUS!”
The world shattered in agonizing darkness.
Crack.
I landed with my knees in the grass, a moan gurgling from my throat. Fluffy Jr. whined and sniffed at my face as bile dripped from my lips.
The Titans shrieked.
I was only fifty feet away, not as far as I’d hoped.
Everything was on fire.
Nyx screamed something in my ear, but I couldn’t hear her.
Mentally, I designed my grave—nothing tacky, just a mausoleum with a small crypt and a ten-foot bust of my face. Here lies the introverted pervert who had two husbands.
Chuckling madly, blood sputtering from my lips, I dug tingling fingers into the lawn and heaved.
Standing was an act of God, and I bellowed as I staggered up to my feet. I’d lost my gun in the leap—the dagger was still clenched in my fist.
The Titans screeched and hobbled toward me.
My old friends.
I opened my arms wide (I’d lost my mind).
Come to dance?
My protector bond flared inside my chest, exploding with power.
Fluffy Jr. leapt forward. Midair his body expanded, legs and neck lengthening, lumps on his spine protruding—this time when he collided with a Titan, he threw the monster backward with his size.
Did Fluffy Jr. just …
I blinked in shock.
The second Titan swiped its talons at my face. Whoosh. I leaned my head back on instinct.
The tango, a classic.
I took the opening, stabbing my dagger deep into the Titan’s ruined chest with both my hands. Nyx lunged.
Grinning, I leaned into the sick embrace, bleeding all over the monster.
Die, bitch.
A fresh wave of throbbing agony filled my sternum.
The Titan collapsed onto the grass beneath me, foam once again on its lips. It convulsed violently, arms flailing—I yanked back as a talon swiped in slow motion, but I was too late.
Agony exploded, warmth gushing down my neck.
A mangled ear fell to the grass, one that should have been attached to me.
The Titan convulsed again, its taloned hand slicing through my fallen ear, cutting it to ruin.
I guess I didn’t really need it anyway.
The Titan stilled.
A few feet away, a now oversized Fluffy Jr. growled savagely as he rolled, still fighting the other monster.
Zap-zap-zap. Electric shock waves pulsed through my marriage bond with increased intensity, like it was keeping my heart beating.
I gasped weakly, half lying on top of the still Titan.
Snap. Crunch. Bones shifted beneath me as it came back to life.
I stared blankly down at it. Fine, you win.
The Titan bucked.
I tumbled off, sprawling brokenly in the gore-covered grass. A conspiracy of ravens flew past. How fitting.
Government drones were the last thing I’d ever see. I smiled weakly as emotions bubbled in my chest.
Nyx slithered over and flicked her tongue against my cheek. I tried to raise my hand and feel her scales, one last time, but I couldn’t find the strength to move. I turned my head, resting my cheek against her face.
“I … love … you,” I whispered between gasps. I love you, Fluffy Jr., Charlie, Helen, Drex, and maybe—
A whistling sound cut off my potentially disturbing revelation.
Pops, grunts, shouts, and slaps echoed.
It took a second to decipher the blur of bronze skin.
Augustus stood over the Titan.
His black and white hair was undone, blowing behind him—he strangled the Titan with one hand wrapped around a metal chain, and fired a gun with his other, pumping its chest full of bullets.
Has ambidexterity always been so hot?
Splattered with black, teeth bared, crimson dripping from his eyes, Augustus looked positively feral.
Maybe it was the blood loss.
Maybe it was the pain.
Maybe it was the fact that Augustus was disturbingly capable of eliminating evil.
But suddenly, I couldn’t understand how I’d ever thought I was asexual.
The chain was attached to Augustus’s hip, the end tied around a third wingless Titan—it was trussed up with a tag stabbed through its bottom lip, and he was using the middle part of that metal chain to choke the Titan that had been attacking me.
Whatever this is, I’m into it.
Augustus holstered the gun, buried two knives into the Titan’s eyes, then resumed firing from point-blank range.
A hand grabbed my face, turning me away from the carnage.
Kharon tipped my chin to the side and froze, staring at what felt like a hole in the side of my skull.
Oh yeah, my ear’s on the ground somewhere, chopped into tiny pieces.
His eyes hardened into chips of unyielding ice. Kharon reached for his holster and raised up a wickedly sharp dagger.
Wait …
He sliced the blade clean through his left ear.
Someone screamed silently in horror.
It was me.
With a determined expression, Kharon pulled a small box out of his cargo pants.
A needle and thread glinted.
Augustus came back into view as he stalked across the lawn.
His gun was raised high as he fired at the last Titans. Poco perched on his shoulder with narrowed eyes—his fluffy raccoon arm was raised, pointing at the Titans, his thumb flexing rapidly.
Wait, is that a finger gun?
Kharon leaned down and blocked my view as he brought the needle and thread up to the left side of my face.
I tried to speak, but I couldn’t; I tried to tell him with my eyes not to do it.
Kharon bent closer, his jaw clenching with resolve as he sewed his appendage onto the side of my head.
“Per angusta ad augusta, carissimus,” he whispered.
Through trials to triumph, my dear.
Augustus appeared and Kharon leaned back to give him space. They patted my pockets until they pulled out two tags engraved with Hercules.
A single droplet fell from the sky, splattering across the golden name.
Augustus leaned down.
He pressed a gentle kiss to my forehead. I couldn’t feel a thing, yet my skin tingled where his lips brushed. He smelled like gunpowder, lightning, and sin.
Poco patted my cheek.
As they pulled away, the heavens opened up and rain drenched the world.
Kharon resumed sewing.
I was alive when I should be dead.
The Roman Colosseum loomed above, an ancient reminder—this was Sparta, and for better or worse, we were the gods of this new dark age.