Daughter of Asteria (The Daughter Trilogy) (34 page)

my version of fun,” I menacingly add.

He starts to flash away, but I block his path as the winds build an impenetrable wall around him.

Surges of electricity rain from the sky and bounce off me to dive into him.

Everyone rushes out as the winds pick up and the lightening crashes, each bolt striking the ground

beside the scum who tried to trick me into bed.

“Where’s Devin?” Theia screams. “He has to stop her.”

“I’ll get her,” Jace intervenes.

He rushes to me, but a swirling gust knocks him onto his back.

“Don’t touch me,” my hollow voice threatens.

“Damn it! She’s going to kill him!” Kry panics.

“What the hell is she?” a girl shrieks.

A deadly smirk appears on my face as I taste the fear, the panic, and the chaos brewing around

me. Slash is almost stark white and terrified as I continue to stalk toward him with a hungry prowess.

I feel the ground beneath us shaking, trembling, and begging me to be gentle. He screeches

slightly as I slap the lightening beside his face and graze him on the cheek.

I see a body leaping from the ocean and flashing toward me. I hear Theia pleading once more.

“Devin. Thank goodness. Stop her.”

“Yeah. I got it,” he says with muffled confusion.

He walks right through my winded barricade, defying its strength as if it doesn’t apply to him.

His immunity to my power has grown.

He grabs my waist to do his duty and bring me down, and the real fire consumes me at the feel of

his long lost touch. I want to feel his kiss, but not like this.

I quickly push him away as I release my storm.

“Relax,” I growl. “I’m not out of control. I’m just pissed.”

Devin’s head tilts curiously, and he looks to Slash for answers. Poor Slash is so distraught and

horrified that he doesn’t know what to say.

“Ast… Aster… Asteria,” he stammers out while cowering into the sand beneath him. “She’s not

Aphrodite, she’s Asteria.”

“She’s both and much more,” Devin huffs. “What the hell did he do?” he says as he turns back to

me.

“He fucked up. That’s what he did. I’m guessing it’ll never happen again,” I add with a

prompting tone.

“No. Fuck no. I swear it won’t,” Slash promises.

“What did you do?” Devin groans in exasperation. “I leave to go swimming for an hour, and I

come back to this.”

“An hour?” Gemma gasps. “You’ve been gone an hour?”

“Yeah,” Devin murmurs in confusion. “I never even came in.”

She turns to glare at the sniveling pervert on the ground, and she screams, “You son of a bitch!”

She lunges at him, but two guys restrain her body. But they can’t restrain the big ass palm tree

that strikes him like a bat would a ball.

Slash bounces backwards from the impact and grumbles into the sand as he
thuds
into it.

“That asshole posed as you and came to my room,” she screeches. “I made out with him for thirty

minutes, and it would have gone farther if Adisia hadn’t walked through,” she shivers out in disgust.

Devin’s eyes show his understanding, and he looks me over once before he has to be restrained.

“Did you fucking touch her?” he growls as the others hold him back.

“I just kissed her. She figured out it wasn’t you pretty early on,” he groans.

“You sick son of a bitch. I’ll kill you for this!” Devin blares as a deafening boom erupts from

him and ripples through the air.

It slaps against Slash’s chest and he’s driven back farther on the island, sand flying up to

pronounce his exhausted defeat.

I walk over to stand in front of Devin and hold my hands up to halt his next attack.

“I’m fine. I made the point myself. I don’t need you doing it for me, and I’m sure Gemma feels

the same,” I say in an eerie calm.

His eyes soften, and I can see pain filling up in them as if I’ve said the worst thing in the world.

“You think this is about Gemma?” he scoffs.

“I think you’re a little pissed that he tried to get with both of us while you were out. Just drop it.

The worst he did was touch us with those disgusting lips,” I assure.

Devin shrugs off the arms confining him and storms back into the house. Kry circles his round

blades in his hands as he steps up.

“If anyone has a problem with this, then speak now, but Slash is forbidden from changing without

our knowledge while in our presence. Any questions?”

“None,” the madam of the house answers as her eyes scold Slash who is crawling back toward us.

He sinks into the sand he’s been pounded into, and then I follow Kry and Hale back in.

Everyone is drenched now that I’ve thrown a tantrum, and I wring out my shirt before stepping

through the doors. Devin’s nowhere to be seen, and I flash up to change out of my dripping clothes.

The gaping hole in my room poses a problem. I really don’t need to be giving anyone a peepshow

right now.

I huff as I grab some clothes and flash into the closest bathroom.

Stupid immortal bullshit!

My life as a mortal was fucked up, but... this shit just keeps getting crazier.

With dry clothes replacing my soaked ones, I finally walk out of the bathroom to hear muffled

voices drawing my attention. I stealthily creep up to eavesdrop.

“I really am sorry. It was just a little joke. You know how I am,” Slash exasperates.

“That’s not an excuse. Using Devin’s face to get laid, especially with Adisia, is definitely enough

to cause war between our families,” Kry admonishes.

“Bring him down here and let me apologize,” Slash groans.

“Save your insincere apologies. There won’t be a war this time, but I swear I’ll fucking kill you if

you ever touch her again for any fucking reason,” Devin interjects out of nowhere. “You’re so fucking

lucky she was mad at me. If you had gone further than a perverted kiss, this conversation would be

going very differently right now,” he blares.

“My perversion doesn’t reach that depth. I never screw a girl when wearing a mask unless she

asks me to wear the mask. I could have slept with Gemma within the first five seconds. I admit, I got

a little carried away with Adisia, but she stopped me when she realized it wasn’t you. In fact, she

damn near killed me in case you’ve already forgotten,” he explains.

“She kissed you willingly when she thought you were me?” Devin says curiously.

“Yeah, and those divine lips are intoxicating,” Slash murmurs dreamily.

Devin’s growl warns Slash to watch himself, and there’s a silent moment. I’m sure a stare down

is in effect, and Devin’s glower is definitely intimidating.

I want to see, but I know everyone will lock up their lips if I walk in.

“Why are you so mad when you aren’t even staying in the same room as her?” Slash huffs.

“My relationship isn’t any of your concern,” Devin blares.

Relationship? We still have one?

“Why didn’t you tell us she was a descendent of Asteria?” a woman’s voice chimes in.

“She asked us not to,” Kry answers.

“Since when do we let newcomers call the shots?” she scoffs.

“Since the newcomer took my place as Emperian,” Deidra grumbles humbly.

“What?” the woman gasps.

Crap.

“We entered a battle, and she won my title,” Deidra shortly explains.

“You have to apologize to her right now,” the woman shouts.

“I didn’t know. I swear I didn’t know,” Slash panics.

I roll my eyes when I realize I can’t stay hidden for much longer, and I swirl around the corner to

meet the ghastly faces of the strangers I’m only beginning to learn the names of.

“Relax. I think you’ve learned your lesson. I don’t like being touched unless I want to be

touched. Got it?” I warn.

“Got it,” he mumbles with a trembling tone.

I plop down on the couch, and Devin comes to sit beside me. Butterflies ruffle in my stomach,

and I fight the urge to curl into his body.

Gemma walks in, and her eyes instantly glare at the face-stealing pervert that seduced her.

“If you ever come near me again, I swear I’ll string you up,” she grumbles.

“No worries. I’ve had filet mignon now. I can’t go back to hamburger meat,” he mocks.

A windowsill plant comes to life, and it strangles around his throat momentarily, until his hands

rip it apart.

“Your plants don’t work as effectively on me, in case you don’t remember,” he taunts.

She narrows her eyes at him, and then she sits down beside an excited Ther. Her eyes shift toward

Devin, and I feel his arm draping around my shoulders in that instant.

I cringe at the desirable fire so close to me because I know he’s just keeping her from messing

with him right now. He’s probably regretting ever letting her chase him in the name of the jealousy

games.

Then a ferocious buzzing emerges from outside the window, and the fear becomes eminent in the

faces of everyone around me. Everyone stands, and Devin grabs my hand instinctively before flashing

outside.

I almost can’t keep up with his fervent pace, and I gasp as I see a dangerous cluster of darkness

swimming through the air high above us.

“It can’t be. Safina doesn’t have this power anymore,” Theia panics.

“What power? What is this?” I mutter warily in a near whisper.

“An army of dead,” Hale almost whispers as he steps up beside of us.

He launches his scorching sun rays into the cloud of darkness, but it just scatters around before

starting its materialization. The buzzing ashes form bodies, and when the dust settles, my mouth pops

open in disbelief.

These people don’t look dead at all. They’re not dirty, rotting zombie corpses wearing tattered,

formal burial attire. They’re not stalking toward us with arms raised and empty stares.

They’re clean, poised, and their stares are full of deadly ambition mixed malicious intent.

Theia throws out her rippling wave, but only a couple fall down. The others seem unaffected.

I pull open the clouds, but the lightening falters as it crashes into the ground between them,

leaving them unscathed. Fire surges from the pack of vicious dead, but the ocean suddenly swipes

between us like a magnificent wall to snuff out their dangerous strike.

Devin’s hand tightens against mine, and his eyes swirl with power as he stares through the clear

wall he’s holding.

Theia slashes her hand with Kry’s blade and tosses her blood to the ground as if it’s supposed to

do something. The army doesn’t waver and all the lively faces just smile at her.

Her eyes widen in disbelief before ducking back behind the ocean wall, her hands now trembling.

“We’re the intended targets. That should have worked,” she stutters out.

“They’re invincible,” I worry aloud.

“No. Just damn hard to kill. We need to find their leader, and-”

Hale’s explanation ends quickly as a new silhouette slowly reveals itself through the smoggy

remnants of the entry.

My heart pounds too fast for me to control my erratic breaths. I don’t feel like a twenty-six-year-

old powerful immortal right now. I feel like a terrified eighteen-year-old girl staring into the eyes of a

man she never thought she’d see again.

Nausea strikes my barely standing body, and his eerie grin cocks up to one side as his smug stride

brings him closer to the aquatic wall.

“We should have had some sort of badass song blaring for that entrance,” he says in a playfully

dangerous tone. “Don’t you think so, Izzy?”

Izzy. I never thought I would hear that name again.

I swallow hard against the hellacious knot, and Devin’s eyes widen as the taunting continues.

“What’s wrong? You didn’t think you’d ever see me again?” he snickers.

“Van… no… you’re dead,” I stumble out as fear seizes me completely.

“I was. I told you we’d meet again. Now here I am. You look much better than the last time I

saw you,” he gloats. “Maybe we can pick up where I left off,” he continues angrily through grinding

teeth.

He starts to try and rip through the barrier, and each step closer brings more anxiety to flood me.

I shiver, and I feel myself drifting backwards as the panic rises to meet my chest and consumes

me.

“It’s Adisia. Devin, her blood,” Theia shouts.

“Kry,” Devin urges, and Kry responds by tossing his blade toward us.

I don’t even feel the slice before I see the blood being tossed to the ground. I gasp as Van’s face

distorts along with everyone else’s in the army, and they disintegrate back into the buzzing ashes

before vanishing just as quickly as they appeared.

My body has gone numb as I crash to the ground with a stiff collapse. Devin instantly scoops me

up and pulls me into his body as he carries me bridal style into the house.

Everyone is clattering loudly as they discuss the impossibility of this dead army, but he’s silent as

he nestles me into his body.

My whole body is trembling as the terror refuses to subside. My mouth refuses to form words.

The trembles violently turn to convulsions, and Devin’s arms grip me tighter to lessen the seizing

episode.

Gradually, the dreadful jolts simmer back into trembles, and Devin’s hand strokes my hair

affectionately to soothe as he’s had to do so many times before.

“Adisia,” Theia blares, and I look up to realize all eyes are on me.