Chapter 26 – Lamia
LAMIA
We stand outside a bar in the middle of nowhere.
We saw a little town a few miles down the road, but I suspect that most of the residents that are still awake at this late hour are here.
At least judging from all the cars, the lights, and the noise that break up the darkness of the forest that surrounds it.
The building looks decrepit. It’s made of wood that looks worn and dirty, and its steps lead up to a door that’s painted red. A few tall windows show light inside, and we can hear laughing and talking from the dirt parking lot.
“This is really where we need to go next?” Darius asks.
I nod. Already I’d realized something about the book.
It was magical. Each time I looked at it, some things changed and others became clearer.
When I’d first seen this part of the map, and the strange blurred necklace, I’d had no idea what it was.
But since leaving Vegas, the image had become clear.
The only problem? If the men saw who owned the necklace, they would kill her.
And if she saw them, she would kill them.
It was a tricky situation.
“Lamia?” Ryker says my name, and I turn.
Our eyes meet, and that tension that’s hung between them and I since the hotel room seems to strengthen. It’s hard to breathe. I have an intense desire to bite Ryker and taste his sweet blood while he fucks me hard.
His air comes out in a rush, and he takes a small step closer.
“Guys.” Vincent clears his throat. “We all either need to focus on the task at hand or fuck. One or the other, because it doesn’t seem like we can do both.”
My cheeks warm, and I look away from Ryker, breaking our moment.
Ryker swears. “We’re focused.”
“On fucking,” he says with a laugh.
“Says the guy with a constant hard-on,” Darius mumbles.
Vincent has the good grace to look embarrassed. “She moans in her sleep. Blame her.”
“I do not!” I say.
All three guys nod at once, and I feel even more embarrassed.
“While you were sleeping soundly,” Vincent says, grinning, “we were all trying not to fumble with our dicks.”
“Vincent!” Ryker exclaims, looking horrified.
I want to melt into the ground. “Well, tonight I’ll try not to…moan.”
Vincent’s grin widens. “Actually, I think we’d all like to make you—“
“Fucking hell!” Ryker throws his hands in the air. “Can we stop this?”
Darius clears his throat. “So, the necklace…”
“Yes.” Ryker still looks mortified. “How do you know it’s here?”
I avoid his gaze. “It’s actually…around here.”
Their gazes feel heavy.
“What aren’t you telling us?”
I push my hair behind one ear. “You guys will have to stay at this bar, and I’ll go and get it.”
“Hell no!” Ryker argues.
“It’s the only way this will work.”
Ryker shakes his head, crossing those big, sexy arms of his in front of his chest. “That’s not going to happen.”
I sigh. “The necklace belongs to a woman.”
Darius raises a brow. “A woman?”
I hesitate. “Well, not exactly a woman, more like…well, she has powers, and she sort of…well—“
“Spit it out,” Vincent says. “It’s late, and I’m cold and horny.”
“She’s like me,” I blurt out.
They’re all quiet for a long minute.
“Then you’re definitely not going alone,” Ryker says, his tone unrelenting.
I roll my eyes. “She’s a friend.”
“And what does this friend do exactly?”
I really don’t want to answer that. “Men aren’t safe around her.”
They keep staring.
“Just wait for me in the bar. I’ll bring the necklace back, and everything will be fine.”
Darius shifts, looking between the bar and me. “And what about the gods? You might trust this monster, but what if you run into trouble?”
I flinch. “Can we not call her a monster, first of all?”
“Sorry.”
I take a deep breath. “And as for what I’ll do if I run into trouble…I mean, come on, I can take care of myself.”
“I don’t like this idea,” Ryker says.
Darius and Vincent look to him, waiting.
He sighs. “How long do you think it’ll take you?”
I think for a minute. “I should be back before two in the morning.”
“You will be back by then,” he says. “Or we’ll come looking for you.”
I feel an immense relief wash over me. Not only does this show they might be starting to actually trust me, but it means I’m avoiding the hell that would’ve been these guys meeting her.
Turning, I start to walk away from the bar.
“Where will you be?” Ryker calls after me.
I look back. “At a crossroads on the way to the town.”
He frowns. “Why?”
“You don’t want to know. Trust me.”
I feel the men’s gazes on my back as I keep walking, but I don’t look back. If they think for one second that I have doubts, I know they’ll be running after me. So I keep my head up and my gaze forward.
When I’ve gone far enough so that I’m out of sight of them and the bar, I finally relaxed.
The night is dark and quiet. A bright moon hovers overhead, and a dusting of gray clouds hover in the sky.
There’s the scent of rain on the air, as if it’d fallen recently, or would fall soon.
The area beside the road is just dirt and gravel, crunching under my feet, strangely loud against the silence of the woods.
A slight breeze teases the skirt I wear, and I feel an immense longing to kick off my shoes and shift into my snake form, but I don’t. This road might not be heavily traveled, but I can’t risk a human seeing my other form.
It takes several minutes before I come to the first crossroads. Already, I know she’s here. I can feel her power like the heat from an oven. Only her magic isn’t hot, it’s cold like her. Cold and lonely, like the spirit of a ghost.
Being near her breaks my heart. Her loneliness is so similar to my own.
“Em?” I call, but the wind is my only answer.
I move closer to the crossroads, feeling the power of this place rise up from my feet to my heart. The sensation is overwhelming. Like walking in a graveyard and sensing all the loss and misery.
“Lamia?”
Spinning, I turn to face her, heart racing.
Em is short for Empusa. There is little human about her, even though in the technical sense she’s the child of a demigoddess and a demon.
Her hair has weaving shades of black, white, and red and orange that shift and blends like flames, changing color from one moment to the next.
Her eyes are big and golden under arched brows.
As she moves closer to me, wearing dark jeans and a white, flowing top, I see her power flaming beneath her skin.
There and gone in a flash, power that she easily conceals from the humans she preys upon.
“It is you,” she says.
I smile and move closer. In an instant, I’ve embraced her. She shudders, holding herself stiffly in my arms, before slowly relaxing. And then her arms encircle me, and she weeps.
Holding her closer, I stroke her back, wishing I could take her pain away.
But neither of us could help the other. The little time we spent together made us realize that we were too broken. And that our powers made us more dangerous when together.
We were a bad combination.
I pull back and wipe her tears away. She’s far younger than me, but she’s had a terrible life.
“Still no word from your mother?”
Her golden eyes are filled with sorrow. “No. I don’t think she’ll ever escape.”
My heart aches for her. “Ever is a long time.”
“Especially in the Underworld,” she says, her voice soft and filled with sadness.
I look to the moon, wrapping my arms around myself. Empusa is the daughter of the first witch, a powerful monster and demigoddess named Hecate. She was created when Hades unleashed a demon onto Hecate and impregnated her with the demon’s seed.
Empusa was raised for a time in the prisons of the Underworld. Until her mom sacrificed everything to help her child escape. But without her mother’s magic, she can’t escape her demon half. She’s compelled to linger at crossroads and lure unsuspecting men to their deaths.
Something she hates with every fiber of her being.
“Have you found any way at all to…to control it?” I ask her.
She shakes her head. “You know it’s impossible! There’s no hope for me. I’ll always be this…this thing.”
Her hand closes around her mother’s necklace, and my gaze moves to it. “That’s what I’ve always said too.”
Her gaze sweeps back to me, and her brows furrow.
“I think I’ve found a temporary way to tame my bloodlust.”
Her eyes widen.
“I’ve connected with some gargoyles who are helping me on a quest. They’ve agreed to feed me when I’m hungry. And being fed, well, I feel less out-of-control.”
“You’re kidding,” she says, wrinkling her nose. “There’s no way gargoyles are helping you. We’re enemies!”
I try to smile. “I was as surprised as you are.”
Her gaze grows thoughtful for a moment. “But your curse is different than mine. I feed on my victims too, but I can’t escape crossroads. I can’t stop luring men to their deaths.”
“But maybe if there’s a solution for me, there will be one for you too.”
She looks so young and vulnerable as she crosses her arms over her chest. “Maybe.”
I take a deep breath. “There’s actually more. And there’s something that I need from you that’s asking a lot.”
“What?”
“There may be a way to undo this curse. And to get my children back.”
She looks confused. “I thought your children were dead?”
I flinch. “They are…but they can be reborn.”
Em gives one of her rare smiles. “Lamia, that’s wonderful!”
“It is,” I say. “But the thing I have to ask from you is not.”
“Anything,” she says, her voice certain.
And I hate that I have to do this. I hate that I have to ask this of her.
“We have to bring specific precious items to trade.”
She stares, not yet understanding what an awful thing I’m going to ask of her.
“I need your necklace.”
Her eyes widen, and she reaches down and grasps the chain.
“My mother gave me this,” she whispers.
“I know,” I say, the words coming out broken.
Her eyes squeeze shut. “You know what it does and why I have it?”
I shake my head, then realize she can’t see me. “No.”