Page 106 of Blood

VIN

“Upstairs!” Alex bellows, taking the steps two at a time as we all race to catch up.

Frankie, Hera, Lucifer, Dracula, and I arrived to see Mount Olympus in absolute chaos. Monster bodies were strewn across the golden asphalt, surrounded by pools of blood. Fomorians fought Fomorians, monsters fought monsters, and it took me a second too long to realize no one knew who the fuck they were fighting or why. It was chaos. Pure and unfettered chaos. Vanessa stood on the roof of a small building, barking orders at everyone who would listen. I was immensely relieved to see my sister was okay. Aside from a small scratch on her upper arm, she appeared unharmed, her eyes glimmering with violence and the need for justice.

And then Barret arrived, a hulking giant of muscle, and told us that Cal and Violet flew to the top of the castle to stop Zeus once and for all. All thoughts of battle and war dissipated from my mind in my haste to get to them.

“Did this place always have so many fucking stairs?” Lucifer heaves from where he’s still a few floors below us, leaning against the railing. Hera places a comforting hand on his lower back, and surprisingly, Dracula does as well.

“Just think about how good it will feel to decapitate Zeus once we get all the way to the top,” Dracula reassures him.

“I’ll even let you do it with a piece of paper,” Hera chimes in, wiping at the sweat on her forehead with the back of her hand. “I know that always puts a smile on your face.”

“It would be fun,” Lucifer mutters, and then the three of them continue to half climb, half crawl up the staircase.

They soon leave my field of vision as I enter a hallway covered in framed pictures of Zeus.

A bellow of pure rage draws my attention to the only open door in the hall.

“There!” Hux races ahead and all but slams Alex into the wall in his bid to get to Violet first.

The rest of us are only a few steps behind him, even Frankie, who once told me that running is the work of the devil and anyone who willingly does it should be executed.

“Holy shit,” Frankie breathes in shock.

Dimitri’s grip tightens on his blade as he studies the room with wide eyes.

“What the fuck?” Hux demands.

Violet stands in the center of the room, hovering a few inches above the ground. Her golden hair whips around her face like tendrils of electricity, and her blue eyes appear almost black in the dim lighting, a cauldron of spilled ink. A dark mist crawls up both of her arms like shadowy snakes as she keeps her attention locked on Zeus.

The ground opens up beneath the god.

I take an automatic step backward when creatures begin to crawl out of the now gaping hole. I’ve never seen any monsters like them before in my entire existence. Their milky, sunken eyeballs rest in faces devoid of any skin, nothing but pink and red muscle. Their bodies are emaciated and appear to be charred, as if they’ve been burnt repeatedly. Bile burns in my throat when one of their heads cants to the side, tottering as if it has just caught a particularly pungent scent. I can see the stringy tendons on its neck just barely holding its body together.

Their clawed hands reach for Zeus, grabbing at every inch of skin they can touch. Soon, Zeus’s entire lower body is consumed by these hideous, grotesque creatures. Each of them digs their talons into his waist, inching their way up his body as he flails from side to side. His magic doesn’t seem to be working on them. Or, at the very least, these creatures are immune to it. No matter what he does, the beasts continue to pull at his body, dragging him into the gaping abyss in the middle of the room.

“The souls of the damned,” a rough, raspy voice breathes from beside me, rife with wonder. I turn to see Lucifer leaning heavily against the doorframe, his blond hair tousled and his face pale with fatigue.

“What?” Dimitri barks, reluctantly ripping his gaze away from a luminescent Violet, who’s still screaming like a damn banshee, her head thrown back, her arms extended, those inky shadows spilling from her skin.

“Violet’s controlling the souls of the damned,” Lucifer whispers, appearing stunned. “That power...it should be impossible. No one has ever been able to control those souls before. Not even me.”

An anguished scream pulls my attention back to Zeus, just as one of his arms is yanked clean off his body, blood spurting in every direction. Another one of the creatures drags a taloned hand down his face, plucking at his eyelid and ripping it clean off.

“Violet can control the damned,” Dracula says in wonder, his eyes sharpening on his daughter. “I doubt she even knows she can do it.”

“She probably unintentionally called on this power when those hunters were torturing her,” Hera surmises. “My god.”

When those hunters were torturing her...

When my father and his men attempted to steal the love of my life from me.

I try to envision these same souls ripping my dad to pieces, and bile churns in my stomach. I don’t regret what happened to the sadistic man, but...he was my father. And maybe a part of me still loves him, despite all he has done.

I shove all thoughts of the wretched man aside, knowing I need to stay focused and present.

“You stupid bitch!” Zeus rages, his one good arm somehow breaking through the pile of decaying, burnt, grotesque bodies. A ball of energy materializes in his hand, glimmering like flames.

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