Fire & Flood (Mythverse #1)

Book 2 Chapter 29

29

Even watered down the ambrosia leaves me feeling a little hungover the next morning. Or maybe it was all the rich food. Or it could’ve been the amount of tension around that table. Put that in a bottle and you could power all of Florida for a year.

Shading my eyes against the too bright sun, I make my way across campus to the infirmary. The healers strictly sealed off the building while they were dosing the afflicted shifters with the cure—a serum that Metis concocted using antibodies from the dead baby scorpion. When I arrive, they’ve just begun to allow non-afflicted students in.

Rochelle—the lion-shifter who had been stuck in her cat form—is in a circle of friends, restored to her human body. She doesn’t seem able to speak, though. Every time she opens her mouth, all that comes out is a guttural rumble.

“It’ll pass,” Hepa says, appearing at my side. “But it will take time for her higher functions to return.”

“Greg? And Jordan?” I ask, nervously.

“Jordan never had any higher functions,” Hepa responds. “So he’s fine. As is your little bat-man. I sent them both back to their dorms last night after dosing them.”

“Thank gods,” I say, relief flooding me.

“Edie!” Fern calls for me from across the room and I make my way to her, slipping past beds with former patients who are shifting in and out of their forms, ecstatic to be able to change again.

“We did it!” Fern says, a huge smile on her face. “Or, well, Metis did. But it couldn’t have happened without you. Metis wouldn’t let anyone near the little scorpion monster you found. She was the only one allowed to work with it, and she said its venom is still incredibly dangerous, even now.”

She takes my arm, leading me back through the crowd of departing, healthy shifters. “Metis asked Merilee to lock up the scorpion body deep in the Archives, for further study at some point. The shifter plague wasn’t any normal illness; the monsters made it as a bio-weapon. Metis is curious if she can reverse engineer it now.”

I stop in my tracks, disturbed. “What does that mean?”

“Well,” Fern says. “If the monsters can make a plague that makes shifters unable to shift, maybe we can create our own. One that would turn a regular human into a shifter. We wouldn’t have to count on students being born as shifters then. We could just make them.”

“Um, that’s kind of horrible,” I tell her. “And I say that as someone who totally thought she was just a regular human until she found out she was a shifter. It’s sort of traumatic.”

“Oh, yeah. Totally!” Fern says. “I’m sorry…I wasn’t thinking about it that way. I was just excited about the science of it.”

“It’s okay,” I tell her, but I don’t have time to argue medical ethics. “Listen… do you think you can get me some of the—”

“Already ahead of you,” Fern says, slipping a vial into my hand. “For Tina, right? One dose should do it. But because we don’t know what percentage of her heritage is shifter, it could be…messy.”

“Messy, how?” I do share living space with her, after all.

“Messy like…well, just maybe don’t use the same bathroom for a few days.”

“Great, thanks,” I mutter, tucking the vial into my backpack. “Gotta run. Kratos hates it when people are late.”

He definitely does. He also hates it more now that Maddox is considered the official on-campus badass. He’s spent the last few classes just showing us how much he can deadlift.

But today looks different. As I slide into my seat right before the start of class, I see that his weights are no longer at the front of the classroom. Instead, there’s a god I don’t know standing next to Kratos.

“I understand some of you are going on a mission tomorrow?” Kratos asks. Nico nods, as do a few other heads—my fellow teammates, Larissa and Val among them.

“Wonderful,” Kratos says. “I thought now would be a good time to review stabbing techniques, and I’ve brought Algos, the god of pain, here to illustrate a few things.”

Algos gives us all a steely nod. He’s beautiful in a weepy, tortured poet kind of way. Skinny, but with the toned body of a runner. He’s got his blond hair tied back in a man-bun and he looks like he’s about to whip out a guitar and sing about his lost love. Total hipster hottie.

Except he doesn’t even get a chance to introduce himself before Kratos stabs him in the gut.

We all gasp.

Algos holds onto Kratos for support as he doubles over, blood dripping off the end of the dagger still sticking out of Algos’ body.

“Now,” Kratos says, “a gut wound is almost always fatal, but it takes time, and your enemy will still have opportunities to harm others on the field. Unless you totally gut them.”

With that, Kratos sweeps the dagger out of Algos’ midsection, tracing a half circle from which all of his intestines fall out. A cat-shifter vomits and runs out of the room, but Algos is already leaning over, gathering up his own guts in his arms.

Amazingly, a look of pure pleasure is on his face. “Again?” His tone is sweet like a child asking for another push on the swing.

“Perv,” someone mutters.

“No, next we work on heart removal,” Kratos says, and Algos nods excitedly as he pulls open the empty cavity of his abdomen and stuffs his intestines back inside. He holds both hands over his belly as a healer holds a glass of ambrosia to his lips. He takes two sips and within seconds, a warm glow envelops Algos. Just like that, he’s back to normal.

And alarmingly sad again.

“Someone stab me,” he pleads. “Please?”

It’s like that for the rest of the hour, students taking turns finding out what it will feel like to run their blade up against bone, gouge out an eye, and partially decapitate someone.

Larissa and Cassie slip out together almost immediately.

Val handles the decapitation like a professional. Usually I like his coldness, but in this context—it’s scary.

Nico is worse, though. His single eye glows as he stabs Algos repeatedly.

I’m up after him. To make this “fun,” Kratos has set up two urns. We reach into the first one to pick a body part. The second urn tells us what weapon to use.

I reach in and hope for something not too icky. Feeling too sick to eat breakfast this morning was lucky, because otherwise I definitely would’ve thrown up by now. I pull out the paper and unfold it.

BALLS

Aw crap.

I hold it out so the rest of the class can see. Algos claps his hands in excitement as I reach into urn number two. My second paper is even worse than the first.

BARE HANDS

“Oh, this is going to be so much fun!” Algos squeals.

I shudder. “Can you please stop talking, Algos? You’re making it so much worse.”

He smiles, his eyes going soft and dreamy. “Yeah, I get that a lot.”

Kratos steps between us. “Edie! Less yacking, more castrating. Now there are several ways to do this. My personal favorite I call, ‘making vino.’ It’s impossible to screw up. You just grab ’em and squeeze, the same way you’d pulp a grape.”

I gag, bringing only bile up.

“Spit or swallow it back down,” Kratos advises me, and then he goes back to describing castration techniques. “Now if you want to get a little more artistic with it, I’d recommend—”

That’s it. I can’t listen to any more of this. I shift, and then basically curl up inside of myself, letting the dragon take over. It doesn’t take long. There’s a horrible squishing noise, Algos screams with delight in a high soprano, and then I’m Edie again, my hands covered in—

Val stands in front of me. Shirtless. He rubs my gross hands clean with the same shirt that had just been on his body. It’s cold. But warm too.

Kratos stands behind him, shaking his head at me. “It’s a shame such a weak human has a dragon inside her. But your instincts are good. Let your dragon do what needs to be done.” He turns to the rest of the class. “Alright, I think that’s enough for now. Is everyone who’s going on the mission prepared to use these lessons?”

I nod, hoping I don’t have to castrate anyone with my bare hands as part of my day tomorrow. Or pretty much ever again.

“Good,” Kratos says, and then dismisses us. “Best of luck!”

“And don’t forget,” Algos calls, rearranging his pants. “Always twist the knife so the wound can’t close! Ta-ta, kiddos!”

I’m walking back to the dorm when Nico catches up to me.

“Are you ready for tomorrow?” he asks, tilting his head at me. “Or should I ask if your dragon is ready?”

“Oh thanks, Nico. That’s hilarious. I see you took to heart all that ‘twisting the knife’ advice.”

“Hey, you got it done, that’s the important thing.” Nico nods. “And it was great prep. Almost as good as one of Mom’s speeches. Although I’m sure she’ll give one at the portal.”

“Yep,” I say. “I’m sure of that, too.”

“Hey,” Nico grabs my arm, and it’s all I can do not to turn away from him. But he does have puppy dog eyes…well. Eye. But just that one is enough to make me melt a little.

“Look, I know my mom can be a little much sometimes,” he says.

“A little much?” I ask. “She called Larissa and Val trash. Larissa is basically the nicest person I’ve ever met.”

Nico’s face hardens. “She laughed at me. My mom insisted on walking me back to the dorms after dinner because she was worried what might happen to the sissy boy she’d raised. She’s killed vampires for smaller insults. I should’ve made sure that was the last time Larissa laughed.”

“Nico. You don’t really think that, do you?”

He swallows. “The first time we met she gave me a flower. She thought I looked sad and might like one. When I told her I was a werewolf, she wasn’t scared, just…interested. Like she found it fascinating. Then she asked me if I was ‘very much fluffy’ as a werewolf. And if so, might she someday pet me.” Nico shakes his head, rueful. “You know no one’s ever asked me about my fluffiness before.”

“Yeah, Larissa is special. She looks at the whole world with wonder.”

Nico laughs, but not unkindly. “She’s gonna be worse than useless on the mission tomorrow, though. I’ll try and assign her somewhere out of the way. Keep her safe. The last thing I need is for her to be bumping into my mom on the battlefield.”

“Definitely,” I agree. Then, since Nico seems in a softer mood, I can’t help but ask, “Are you really excited for this mission tomorrow? You really want to do more killing?”

He doesn’t say anything for a long time, and I think he’s offended. But then, softly, he says, “Everyone has a reason for being the way they are, you know?”

I think about Tina, back in our dorm, squirming under blankets as the Moggy blood in her veins denies the pure-blooded vampire mask she’s always tried to wear.

“Yeah, I get that.”

“So, all I’m saying is, my mom has a fun side, too.” Nico grins. “She actually juggles.”

“She what?” I ask, astonished.

“Juggles. This one time, on a raid, she chopped off three Gorgon heads and—”

“Never mind,” I interrupt him, glad we finally reached my dorm room. “Well, ’til tomorrow then—”

Nico grabs my hand. “Edie, my mom didn’t hate you last night. In fact, I think she liked that you tried to stand up to her. She didn’t say that in as many words, but when she mentioned all the people at the table last night who deserved to have their throats ripped out—she didn’t mention your name.”

He looks happy about this. Like it is great news that I maybe sorta kinda passed the first test.

Now Nico takes my other hand, so both of mine are sandwiched between his. He starts to rub them as he says, “I think we should go see Mr. Zee. Together. And ask him for a special allowance to date. No mating, of course. Not yet. Despite hating crossbreeding, I think he’d see how your dragon abilities crossed with all the benefits of my killer gene pool would—”

“Whoa. Nico. Slow down.” I jerk my hands away.

“Edie, it’s okay. I’m not scared. I know most of the guys at this school are all, ‘no way am I banging a fire breathing girl,’ but that’s the part of you I like best.”

I frantically reach behind me for the door handle. “Nico, I just remembered I have a homework assignment for Priapus. I failed the last quiz, so I have to write ten times, “I will not call the hoo-hoo a haha-are-you-kidding-me. I will not call the pee-pee the eighth dwarf, right after Sleepy.”

“What? He’s crazy,” Nico says. “Just tell him you didn’t do it because you had a mission to prepare for. My mom will write you an excuse.”

“No, thanks. I’d rather just do it and be done.” I push the door open and slip inside. “Night!” Quickly, I slam it in his face. And then breathe a long sigh of relief.

When I bring air in again, I realize how rank it smells.

How did Nico not scent that? Hopefully he doesn’t think that’s my normal dorm room funk. Or maybe hopefully he does. The guy doesn’t seem capable of understanding that I might be less into him than he’s into me.

Tina is buried in her blankets. When I uncover her, she looks like a hot mess. Her hair is greasy and plastered to her forehead. Her skin is pale and clammy. And the room funk is definitely wafting off her.

She isn’t exactly thrilled when I wake her up to offer the vial.

“It’s the cure,” I try to explain, but she only glares at me.

“Or it’s an evil plot to take my fangs out,” she snarls, snatching the vial from me.

“Tina,” I say, taking a chance and sitting on the edge of her bed. “If I wanted to take your fangs out, I would’ve done it while you were delirious and told you it was a monster dentist that broke into the dorm.”

“That’s true,” she says, tapping the lid of the vial.

“Seriously?” I ask. “That’s what works for you? Not that I have been helping you all this time, but that I didn’t actively harm you while you were helpless?”

Tina pops the cap, takes a sniff.

“It means a lot.” She shrugs.

“Drink up,” I say and give her a hard look.

Whipping her head back, she downs the potion. A second passes, her eyes focus on mine. And then she’s up and running, hitting the door of the bathroom so hard that it swings back and smacks me in the face when I try to follow.

“Thanks a lot, roomie!” I yell, rubbing my forehead.

I don’t get an answer—not in words, anyway—but a sound comes from the windowsill.

Oh gods.

Apparently Tina’s symbiosis with Vee knows no boundaries.

I walk over to the plant and hold my cupped hands below its mouth.

“Go ahead,” I say. Vee gives another little cough, and a three half-digested flies drop into my hands.

“Good job, Vee.”

I guess this is how I finally make friends with my roommate.